Nathaniel Chalobah will remain sidelined for a 'long period' and Watford head coach Javi Gracia has admitted he does not know if he will play again this season.

The midfielder has not featured since the 6-0 defeat to Manchester City on September 16, with a fractured kneecap keeping him out for five months already and it is an absence that shows no sign of ending.

Watford's medical department has faced plenty of criticism over the past 18 months for its handling of injuries, with numerous players taking far longer than expected to return and players aggravating problems in their first games back, but the Chalobah situation is the worst of the lot.

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The injury was a stress fracture, rather than result of a collision or one specific moment, and Watford originally said the 23-year-old was hoping to rejoin training 'well before the New Year'.

But that has not happened and Chalobah has spent a large chunk of his recovery time at St George's Park, England's training centre in the Midlands, rather than at the London Colney training base.

Although The Independent reported that Chalobah was set to return to grass for the first time next week, it would appear that he is still some way off making a return to full-training or a game and there must be serious doubts over whether or not he'll feature again before May.

The 23-year-old's recovery has taken a lot longer than first thought (Getty Images)

That would be a massive blow for Chalobah, who still harboured hopes of making Gareth Southgate's World Cup squad for Russia and will be devastated at how his first campaign as a permanent Watford player has panned out.

"He is injured and I think he doesn’t come back in the next days and he will be injured for a long period," Gracia told the local press ahead of Watford's game with Everton.

"I am concentrating more on the players who will be able to come back in the next days or weeks and I don’t know how long he will be out for."

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When pushed on whether or not Chalobah could feature before the end of the season, he added: "I am not sure, I can’t tell you anything about that because I do not know."

The Hornets have 11 games left to play, with the campaign ending at Manchester United on May 13. If Chalobah has not returned then, an injury which Watford claimed would rule him out for three months will have kept him out for 36 games and eight months.